Find a new school. I've worked in a horrible environment like that before, and leaving was the best thing I did. No school I've worked in is perfect. It's Sunday night where I am, and I have that nervous feeling in my stomach, despite the fact that I like my school. I think it's because I've got an unannounced observation on the horizon - sigh. It never ends... But some schools are better than others, so just hang in there if you can, apply for all the jobs available, and just remember it's the school you don't like, not the teaching.

Don't know if this is just me, but ever since the recession hit, it feels like schools think it's ok to make things tougher on teachers because of the 'we should just be lucky to have a job in the first place' mentality.

This list is unreasonable. You can only be obs twice a year. Also you only have to attend 1 after school meeting a week. These are the legal requirements of the work load agreement. Speak to the union.

I thought the unions agreed to a compromise with the "action short of strike action" the NUT had?

After reading this I am clinging onto my job!

We are only observed 3 times per year.We stay once per week for staff meeting (anywhere between 1 - 1.5 hours depending on the agenda).We hand in Lit and Num weekly planning (evaluated) on a Mon for the previous week.We hand in subject books at different times to the subject leaders to be moderated.We can leave whenever we like as long as the children have gone and we get things done (some people work better at home).We leave school for PPA time (due to lack of space in school to work).All changes to the school policies/practice are discussed and agreed with teaching staff. Our SMT are very good at what they do and are always reasonable and supportive.

There are many good schools with very good Heads, who have common sense. If you love teaching then please try to find a good school, the profession needs passionate teachers to stay.

*Instruction 2: Members should not participate in any form ofmanagement-led classroom observation in any school which refuses tooperate a policy of a limit of a total of three observations for allpurposes within a total time of up to three hours per year.*

You're right, there this ^ in the workload agreement - that would be only for NUT and NASUWT members working to rule though.

The NUT didn't sign up to the workload agreement at all because it included non-teaching staff taking whole classes, and the whole thing was dropped in Sept 2012 anyway. But the advice on 3 observations/3 hours a year is much the same.

In my school we agreed to not more that 3 hours, meaning that we may have more observations but they would rarely add up to an hour each.

and as for the extra meetings - the NASUWT say this in their action short of strike.

Instruction 10: Members are instructed not to attend any meetings outside school session times which are not within directed time and where there is no published directed time calendar for the academic year which has been agreed with the NASUWT

But look at the NAHT's oh-so-helpful advice to its members on that issue:

*There is no requirement that a school shall only hold one after school meeting per week nor that any such meeting shall be limited to a 1 hour duration.Any refusal to attend a meeting or activity, because it was not on the school calendar, may constitute a breach of contract.*

we are observed 6 times a year, if the result is not good or better, you are re-obsreved until it is.One of our performance mang targets is that 5 out of 6 obs must be good or better.we have two meetings a week at least.books/plans taken in weekly.regular learning walks with no notice.

I'm sure you can find a better school. Like that Guardian (?) ad says 'Become the most admired person in your department: leave.' This sounds awful and I am at the detailed lesson plans for every lesson thing -- how on earth could anyone do that? I have only ever done that for observed lessons and to be honest I find lessons go better when I don't plan in that level of detail -- it leaves a bit of space to respond to the students' needs on that particular day and the adrenalin makes me try harder